Xbox One Fallout 4 Patch: Impressions & Performance

Yesterday, after a bit of a wait, Bethesda released its first big Fallout 4 patch for Xbox One, PS4 and PC. With the patch now out, we want to take an early look at the Xbox One Fallout 4 patch, its performance and some of the problems that remain.

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The complaints started minutes after the release of Fallout 4 back on November 10th. But if you were familiar with Bethesda and its games, you saw it coming from a mile away.

Fallout 4 problems have been a problem from the very start. Within hours of the game’s release, gamers had found a number of bugs and problems, big and small, on all three versions of the game. PS4, Xbox One and PC. Not that this was surprising.

Bethesda’s games are massive and ambitious and filled with moving parts. And that has always led to massively ambitious worlds filled with problems. If you played Morrowind or Fallout 3 or Skyrim, you probably know what I’m talking about. If Fallout 4 is your first Bethesda game, you know now.

In November, Bethesda finally outlined how it would be tackling these Fallout 4 problems. The company confirmed plans to release regular updates featuring bug fixes and new features. This way, it said, it would allow it to “make sure each fix is working right, as any change can have unintentional side effects in a game this huge.” A few days later, Bethesda released the first Fallout 4 patch for PC, in beta form.

Earlier this week, after several days of testing, the developer released the Fallout 4 patch (1.02) for PC. Then PlayStation 4. Then Xbox One.

The Xbox One Fallout 4 patch rolled out yesterday afternoon and it will be the first thing you see when you try and fire up Fallout 4.

I’m not going to do this with every Fallout 4 patch but I felt like it was appropriate with this one with it being the first major patch for the game and with the number of Fallout 4 problems flying around.

Today I want to take a quick look at the Fallout 4 patch for Xbox One. This will go over the installation process, the fixes, new problems, and more.

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Xbox One Fallout 4 Patch Installation

If you haven’t installed the Fallout 4 patch yet note that it’s a pretty sizable update for the Xbox One version of the game.

For Xbox One, the update is nearly 500MB. That’s not the biggest update I’ve ever downloaded but it’s pretty sizable. Fortunately, it shouldn’t take too long for you to get it downloaded.

All in all, it took about four minutes to get the update downloaded and installed. I installed it over a very fast connection and mileage will of course vary depending on your connection speed.

If you haven’t installed it yet and you’re using a slow connection, you might want to think about plugging in directly to see if that helps.

After getting it on board, the game started normally though I was thrown off once I loaded my game and entered the wasteland.

Bethesda didn’t outline this in the change log but the patch completely wiped out my settings. Controller scheme, captions, everything. Everything reverted back to the default. Others are reporting the same thing.

It took me a few extra minutes to get everything setup properly and that’s something to keep in mind if you’re a busy person trying to cram in a session of Fallout 4.

Fallout 4 Patch Fixes

The first major Xbox One Fallout 4 patch comes with some very necessary fixes. If you’ve played Fallout 4 anytime during the last month or so, you’ve probably run into at least one of these problems. I know I did. Here’s the full list:

General memory and stability improvements

Performance improvements inside the Corvega Assembly Plant

Optimizations to skinned decal rendering

Fixed issue with player becoming stuck in terminals

Fixed issue where equipped weapons become locked after completing Reunions

Fixed issue with “When Freedom Calls” where the quest would not complete

This obviously doesn’t cover everything but it does tackle some of the most annoying Fallout 4 problems including the terminal bug that annoyed me and many others in the weeks since release. I’ve used a ton of terminals with this patch on board and I haven’t gotten stuck. Not yet at least.

Without spoiling anything, Corvega Assembly Plant is a massive complex filled with raiders and other enemies. I’ve been through it several times for quests and like other gamers, ran into some frame rate issues inside, particularly in the final room.

Last night I fought my way through the complex and overall, it feels a lot smoother. Reports indicate that Bethesda has removed some shadows to enhance performance. Not ideal but it’s better than stuttering and locking up through an entire zone. A few other things I want to note.

Prior to the patch, two problems (besides the terminal problem) had bugged me. One, crashes and lockups. Occasionally, my game would just freeze and I’d have to dashboard and pray that autosave did its job. This was a near daily occurrence for me.

Short-term results are in and they’re good. I haven’t crashed or locked up with the Xbox One Fallout 4 1.02. patch on board. That doesn’t mean I won’t crash in the future but it does instill some confidence going forward. (This is precisely why I save my game ever 5-10 minutes. I’m sick.)

The other issue was just as frustrating. On occasion, the game would fail to load and sometimes it would fail to get to the main menu. It would just get stuck loading forever and I’d have to dashboard and load the game again. A few times I had to unplug my Xbox One to jumpstart it.

This hasn’t happened with the patch on board and I’m hoping that my good luck continues. Fingers crossed.

Fallout 4 Problems

Fallout 4 is a huge game so it would’ve been impossible for me to see and do everything in the game post-patch. But I did spend way too much time playing it yesterday to see and do as much as possible.

Sound problems continue to plague my game. Last night, and this hasn’t happened before, my sound just cut out for no clear reason. No background noise, nothing. Luckily, I found a quick fix. Just hit the guide button to the dashboard and the go back into the game and sound typically works again.

I’ve also seen a few floating NPCs and I was unable, at one point, to assign my settlers to tasks. Reloading the game helped.

Good Start

Baby steps but steps nonetheless. I managed to get through a marathon play session last night without any major problems. That was very rare during the first month with the game.

Are there still Fallout 4 problems? Absolutely. I’ve seen a few of them myself. But this patch helps and the next one will do the same. It’s a process, just like it is with any game. (The Witcher 3, one of the best game’s of the year and arguably one of the best game’s ever made went through the same growing pains.)

Bethesda’s off to a good start but there’s still a lot of work to do. While you wait for the next Fallout 4 patch, make sure you do your part and report any and all bugs you see to the company’s engineers.

The company clearly listened to gamers when it put together the Fallout 1.02 patch and it will continue to listen.

Fallout 4 Guide for PS4, Xbox One & PC

Fallout 4 Tips for Beginners

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Fallout 4 is an intimidating game. It's a game that could eat up hundreds and hundreds of hours if you let it. There's no wrong way to play the game but there are some thing that we think everybody should do when you first start out.

We've put together a list of tips for beginners and even open-world RPG vets that need some direction. Fallout 4 is a deep game with a mind-boggling amount of crafting. The game also does a bad job explaining some of core mechanics. These tips will help.

We've rounded up those tips in our Fallout 4 explainer for people new to the Fallout series and open-world RPGs in general.